WHERE IT ALL BEGAN ~

HER NICHE WAS RADIO!   

As a young girl, Kathie was always talking.  But being loquacious would pay off twenty years later with Kathie's radio shows. Kathie was a varsity cheerleader whose favorite subject was English, and Kathie also loved writing. Her English teacher, Miss Gaffney, Kathie's favorite teacher at Uniondale High School on Long Island, wrote in Kathie's 1964 high school yearbook, "To Kathie, who talks incessantly, but has more than enough charm to be excused."  

BACKGROUND ~ HISTORY

With a father who did not always have the utmost patience with her (though she knew she was loved), having a compliment by a teacher Kathie respected was a breath of fresh air. Kathie had one sister, Patricia, (3 years older) and one brother, Anthony (10 years younger) who are now at home with Jesus. Kathie's brother was born with cerebral palsy due to loss of oxygen after a doctor/hospital mishap. He was never able to walk, talk or feed himself, but having a disabled brother created compassion in Kathie and her sister, and her brother was a joy to everyone who cared for him. Kathie and her sister, Pat, were like little Tony's second and third mothers.

PIANO

Kathie played classical musical, starting lessons at age thirteen, and her father was thrilled when she graduated from playing the accordion (he would not get her a piano till she mastered the accordion) and began piano lessons with a teacher in Uniondale. She also took lessons from Fred Mendelsohn who headed up the music department at Uniondale High. For years, even after getting married in 1972, Kathie continued taking piano lessons. She found a concert pianist in Stony Brook who played Avery Fisher Hall in New York City who Kathie considered "incredible." Kathie also took lessons from Larry Pearlstein, a band leader from Plainview, who taught her how to play with chords and taught her some jazz.

FAITH

Growing up, Kathie's father was an alcoholic who drowned out his severe back pain from six spinal surgeries during World War II until he found Jesus as his Savior in the 1960's.  He never touched a drop of alcohol after that! Because of his wife Mary's modeling of Christian character, he found Jesus Christ and was a completely changed man. Kathie's grandmother, Josephine, was a stalwart Christian, loving, kind, joyful! Kathie's grandmother greatly influenced the family with her love and godly example, and Mary came to Christ first, then Kathie, then her father, and finally her sister, Pat. Attending an Oral Robert Crusade in Hempstead in December of 1966 changed Kathie's life. She heard the invitation to accept Jesus Christ, went forward, and received Jesus as her personal Lord and Savior.  Having a grandmother who prayed for the family and modeled Christ before them is the reason Kathie's entire family came to know God in their lives.

CULT MINISTRY

In mid 1975 and 1976, Kathie conducted a weekly Bible study in her home with a few Christian ladies. One of the ladies (a friend and neighbor of Kathie's parents next door) attended the study. One day, the woman came to Kathie's Bible study and mentioned that Jehovah's Witnesses had recently knocked at her door and "straightened her out on the Trinity." 

In September of 1976, this dear woman was tragically killed in a terrible car accident while on the way to her father-in-law's wake. The tragedy stuck Kathie very hard as the woman's death was announced live on the radio. Kathie and her husband were in their room getting dressed for this woman's father-in-law's funeral and had the radio on. Kathie was in shock. Such a radio announcement would never happen today. But that was 1976, and back then things were different about privacy. Kathie was in shock hearing the news. This was a great tragedy for the family as this woman's little daughter was in the car with her and was also killed, making it even more tragic.

KATHIE GOES ON THE AIR

Precipitated by this sad event, Kathie's desire was to help cult members and changes lives. She heard of a ministry called CARIS (Christian Apologetics Research and Information Service) located in California. The organization had a co-ministry called the HELP JESUS MINISTRY, an off shoot of CARIS, which ministered to people in the cults. Kathie joined that organization. She decided there had to be a way to get the word out about the cults other than writing literature, so Kathie started a Christian radio show in 1979 teaching about the cults. 

Kathie Adler's program aired live for fifteen minutes every Saturday morning at 11:30 a.m. on WLIX RADIO, a Christian radio station. Kathie's program was on the air in  1979 and 1980.  Kathie later incorporated a Christian ministry called Narrow Way Ministries with her Christian grandmother, mother, and a close friend of hers. The attorney charged Kathie $0 saying, "I believe in what you are doing."  Kathie was referred to the attorney by Sister Celeste Horvath, an evangelist for whom Kathie's mother, Mary, was her singer when Sister Celeste had her prison ministry, and they would visit the prisons. Celeste, a great woman of God, had a soup kitchen in New York City for years and fed the homeless every single Friday night. Her church is still in Bay Shore called Love and Mercy Fellowship pastored by Rev. Debbie Mitchell. 

TRAGEDY & OVERCOMING

In 1984, Kathie's mother and best friend, Mary, passed away at age sixty-two after three major surgeries in eighteen days. Kathie's family feels the cause was malpractice. This was a terrible tragedy in Kathie's life as her mother was her very best friend and soloist at Kathie's seminars. But in 1985, Kathie went back on WLIX Radio from1985 to 1988 (four years) with a program called STRAIGHT TALK WITH KATHIE ADLER which aired five nights a week for thirty minutes.  

Kathie's first show was entitled , "Mothers Are God's Special People." The program was about mothers, her mother in particular. Kathie taught programs on the topics of Jonestown, the Moonies, the Watchtower, the Mormons, and other cult groups. She interviewed former cult members who broke away from a cult as well as parents who lost their sons or daughters to a cult. She interviewed nationally known teachers on cults and apologetics like Dr. Robert Morey, a great friend and brilliant teacher (author of over 60 books) and taught basic Christian beliefs as well as how to witness to cult members. Kathie produced programs with her good friend, Carl Lang, on the topic of AIDS, Heaven, The Early Church, The Last Temptation of Christ movie, and interviewed a Messianic believer. These programs encompassed about sixteen weeks!

During 1988, a WLIX listener survey ranked Kathie Adler's radio program number five in popularity among the more than thirty programs on the station. In all, Kathie produced 950 radio broadcasts over four years until the program went off the air In October of 1988.  Kathie Adler conducted seminars at many churches on Long Island, and her ministry was recognized by counter-cult ministries who shared her burden to reach out to the cults with the Gospel.

After contracting Epstein Barr Virus in 1988 and owing the radio station about $13,000 for air time, Kathie and her husband decided it was time to go off the air. It took them four years to pay off that debt! Today, Kathie still offers her literature on the cults, and she has written three children's books (allegories on the cults for kids), and is working on an important project.  Be patient as there will be free downloads of teaching on the cults and the books for kids will also be available. God bless you!